The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 2008–2021
KWASA replaced Khulna's arsenic wells with 24/7 surface water
ADB's Khulna Water Supply Project built a new utility and a from-intake-to-tap surface water system; coverage rose from under 20% to 65% with 24-hour supply.
Khulna Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (KWASA)
The solution
Khulna, Bangladesh's third-largest city, depended on groundwater that was increasingly contaminated with arsenic and salinity; the water was unsafe and supply was intermittent. In 2008 the government established the Khulna Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (KWASA) — only the third utility of its kind in the country — as the institutional anchor for a fix.
With an ADB loan and co-financing totaling about US$259 million, the Khulna Water Supply Project built an entirely new surface-water system from intake to tap: a 110,000 m³/day intake on the river, a 33-kilometre raw-water transmission pipeline, a 775,000 m³ impounding reservoir and a treatment plant. It also extended and metered the distribution network and strengthened KWASA's corporate management.
The results were operational, not just infrastructural: coverage rose from less than 20% to 65% of the city, supply extended from 5.3 hours a day to 24, and 250 water user groups were set up so low-income communities could manage shared connections. ADB's Independent Evaluation Department validated the completion report in August 2021 with an overall assessment of Successful.
Why it worked
- A new dedicated utility gave the project an owner accountable for service, not just construction.
- Switching the water source solved arsenic and salinity at the root instead of treating wells.
- Metering and user groups made new connections pay for themselves.
- Building from intake to tap avoided the classic failure of pipes with no water.
What can be applied
When the old source is poisoned, don't patch wells — fund a whole new system and build the owning utility at the same time; pipes without a capable owner deliver nothing.
Aftermath
KWASA's network now supplies the city around the clock, and ADB published a book on the project in 2022 titled From the Ground Up, crediting the new authority — only the third WASA in Bangladesh — for the transformation and noting the project financed an entirely new system from intake to tap for 65% of the city's population.
Sources
- From the Ground Up: How Khulna City Shifted from Groundwater to Surface Water
- Bangladesh: Khulna Water Supply Project - Validation Report
- Bangladesh: Khulna Water Supply Project - Project Completion Report
- Khulna Water Supply
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